28 May 2010

Less Like a Baby

The other day after putting Lily's hair up in the best we can do for pigtails so far -- two barrettes on the side of her head to catch her curls -- I snapped this photo. It's a bit blurry, and at first I wasn't sure about it. But the more I looked at it the more it occurred to me that here she looks less like a baby and more like a kid, pigtails and all.

Since Lily turned one almost a month ago, we've been in what I've been calling infant-toddler purgatory. She is getting ready to walk and is babbling nonstop but she's not quite there. And it's hard on us all. Add in a few screaming fits and our days can be quite interesting. More interesting, though, when we giggle together (which is often) or chase each other around the house or dump out all her blocks only to put them back (and dump them out again).

One way that we were able to deal with the "terrible two's," as they have so ineptly been labeled, is to call them "the terrific two's." I thought of my son as having PMS round the clock for a year and was able to identify with his tantrums, meltdowns, and "poor" behavior. I thought of myself during PMS and how helpless I feel, how hormonal I am, and how my emotions are up one minute and down the next. Just think, being two years old and having no idea why you feel the way you do and all these people getting mad or frustrated with you and you can't explain how you feel or what you really want because you have no stinking idea how to feel better! I'm 32 and know what I'm going through, and still feel as though I can't handle it. I cannot even begin to imagine how a toddler feels. So we would just pray and love our son through it all. We had given him a lot of nurturing beforehand and so to love him through the frustrations, to redirect him when he was in danger, to reason with him as best we could, and to support each other through it all was just another simple progression.

She may not be in the terrible two's yet, but parenting her is more challenging as she changes. But it's so much more challenging for her, and that's important to keep in mind.